RIVER RISES, DAM BREAKS
Kendra Tanacea ’88

October has transformed
this riverbank, the island
we always waded to has
disappeared, along with
the upside-down skiff.

A scene so changed,
it seems right without you.
Every year, we say:
where has summer gone?
Death, a sweet cube of

watermelon, the last bites
I fed you in early August.
Insubstantial and pitted.
I stand on the dock as
the water recedes only

to remind me of all
that’s been lost: you
on the beach, our last
picnic, our final canoe
ride downstream.